The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to gear tooth edge breaks and, more particularly, to formation of and gear teeth having convex edge breaks.
Gears are used in various industrial and technological applications to permit power transmission from one rotating or translating element to another. Each gear generally includes an array of gear teeth that mesh with the gear teeth of another gear so that the rotation or translation of the first gear can be transmitted to the second. The shapes of the gear teeth can be varied with some gear teeth being linearly shaped, some being helically shaped, others being provided as double-helical or herringbone shaped, and still others being provided as arcuate shaped (or C-Gear) gear teeth.
Gears typically have a radius or a chamfer on the end faces of gear teeth to eliminate sharp edges. Stress is typically concentrated at sharp edges. Thus, it is important to “break” the sharp edges of the teeth, thus forming tooth chamfer or corner radius. Conventionally, after hobbing, shaping, or grinding, the edge break of the tooth is performed as an additional operation on a standalone, mechanically controlled machine. These machines typically do not produce a sufficiently smooth finish because a spinning grinding wheel is typically guided over the edges of the gear teeth as the gear is rotated on a turntable. These machines may be able to produce a rough approximation of a 45 degree chamfer at the tooth edge. Further, the machines traditionally used are not programmable or computer numerically controlled (CNC). This necessitates a manual touch-up to finish any rough or missed areas at the tooth edge break.